This Week in Legacy: Bringing the Thunder
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be doing some deck diving! We've got a pretty sweet deck to talk about in the form of Giant Stompy! In addition to that, we'll be talking a little bit about Universes Beyond from a Legacy format perspective, and of course we have two Challenges this past weekend to talk about as well! Oh right, and we also have a Spice Corner.
Let's get right to it!
Bringing Down the Thunder
One thing I'm always on the lookout for is new and truly spicy decks to talk about. This particular one this week is a real treat though. It's a take on the classic Mono-Red Stompy archetype, utilizing cards like Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Blood Moon, and Ancient Tomb. It has been said that you can generally play whatever you want on top of this base, and this deck takes that to a brand new level of interesting.
GIANT STOMPY!
One of the biggest things about this deck is all the love that the Giant tribe has received in the past year. As one of the supported tribes in Kaldheim especially, Giants as a tribe received some really powerful cards. The biggest of these that really pushes this deck into even more interesting territory is Calamity Bearer.
Doubling your damage output is great, even more when you have more than one of these in play. Dropping this early really makes the damage skyrocket. The downside of this is that it does not double the damage output when casting Stomp off Bonecrusher Giant (since the instant is not a Giant source), but we'll forgive Calamity Bearer for that. Furthermore, cards like Quakebringer and Tectonic Giant come with a lot of collateral damage that also functions very well with Calamity Bearer.
What I love about something like this is the fact that it is a really unique and synergistic take on an archetype that hasn't had a whole lot of innovation outside of playing some more aggressive threats. Taking the shell and overhauling it to a Giant tribal deck is very cool, and I kind of hope as more Giants are released in the future that we might see even more interesting improvements in this kind of list.
If you're a Stompy player and in the market for something a bit more fiery and interesting, I definitely recommend checking this deck out. It's certainly a lot of fun and the overall shell is adaptable to anything really.
Beyond Magic: Universes Beyond And What It May Mean For Legacy
We got some very intriguing news this past week from the Hasbro Investor's Day, where we received a big announcement on something known as Universes Beyond. This of course, has brought about a lot of chatter on the internets about what this all might mean for Magic, but even more, what it might mean for formats such as Legacy.
For those not in the know, Universes Beyond is a push for Wizards of the Coast (now a full on division of Hasbro "Wizards and Digital") to develop product crossing over into different Intellectual Properties (IPs). The very first of these is a product we already know. If you answered The Walking Dead Secret Lair then you would be correct, as that was grandfathered into the Universes Beyond lineup. The first "official branded" products to go for this are a full set utilizing The Lord of the Rings and from what we understand and know, a Commander product line set in the Warhammer 40K universe.
One of the most important things to keep in mind about all of this is that just how these things will interact with the existing Magic products is mostly unknown. What we do know is that none of these products will be Standard legal. The implication of that of course is that they will be much like supplemental products in that they would be legal primarily in Eternal formats, such as Legacy/Vintage and Commander. There has been some light confirmation of this via some Facebook group posts by one of the Wizards Play Network Community Managers, but not a firm announcement of how legality will work for these.
There's a lot to unpack here, and I think it behooves me to say that even as a big Vorthos person, I don't overtly mind Wizards going for utilization of other IPs. Even with The Walking Dead, while that world may be a bit of a stretch, the very idea of Universes Beyond as a jumping point for new players makes a lot of sense. My issue has always been critical of the distribution method of such things, but from the sound of this announcement, it sounds like that feedback is being heard. While there may occasionally be a Secret Lair product for Universes Beyond, a lot of the primary stuff for it is either going to be a full set or something like Commander decks where availability isn't a huge issue. Having the cards be available is a bigger issue than whether or not the cards somehow mesh with Magic or not.
Now I definitely acknowledge the fact that this isn't for everyone. Not everyone wants Universes Beyond to be a thing, and that's very valid to feel that way, but I'd like to think that we can approach this with an open mind. There is a definite potential to this product line, and I don't believe it's all negative. Really the biggest worry I continue to see is if something were to become playable in Legacy, but having a much wider supply either by being a full set or Commander cards (which are often released in chests on Magic Online) would really help correct any issues from that.
I'm sure we'll be talking about this some more in the future once we get closer to seeing the first Universes Beyond set, and how this all will impact Legacy.
Legacy Challenge 2/27
Two weeks into the post ban metagame! Our first Challenge event of the weekend was the early Saturday morning event, which had 74 players (about average) in it. Thanks to the data collected by the Legacy Data Collection Project, we have a pretty good picture of the metagame in this event. You can find the data sheet for this event here and the decklists for this event here.
Let's take a look at the charts!
This is honestly a pretty good metagame. Nothing in the event cracked over 10% of the decks (U/R Delver came close, but so did D&T and Depths decks) and things look pretty good really. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here, and honestly it just looks like the metagame is really fun right now. Even the win rate data seems pretty well adjusted. Nothing is really insane right now, and lots of players are trying out many news things that had sat by the wayside during the Oko era.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| G/W Depths | 1st | wara |
| RUG Delver | 2nd | HJ_Kaiser |
| Red Eldrazi | 3rd | djizma |
| RUG Delver | 4th | wakarock |
| U/R Delver | 5th | YURAI-WHITECATS |
| G/B Depths | 6th | joker10289 |
| Maverick | 7th | zebhillard |
| Rector Nic Fit | 8th | Overhaul |
RUG Delver?! Wait, didn't we ban you out of existence?! Actually, I think a lot of this is because some of the cards like Mandrills/Goyf are still pretty decent, but also these two RUG players are very good Delver players in general. Outside of this we had some Depths, some Maverick, and even a Nic Fit list! At the end of the day however, it was wara on a G/W Depths/Maverick-like shell that won the day!
This list is super interesting. Having Knight of the Reliquary as both a win condition and enabler for the Depths combo is pretty sweet, and Skyclave Apparition is a cool card for this kind of deck to have. Really interesting take on a Depths strategy for sure.
The Second Place finalist was indeed RUG Delver, but it was in the hands of Eternal Weekend Champion Hans Jacob Goddik (HJ_Kaiser), a veritable master of Delver.
The big interesting card here for me Hexdrinker, which is super cool. Moving more to Spell Pierce as well for that kind of disruption makes a lot of sense for this deck. I suspect this shell is always going to support this color combination as long as Tarmogoyf exists.
Also in the Top 4 is a pretty neat Red based Eldrazi/Mono-Red Stompy deck.
This is pretty neat. Blending some of the elements of Red Stompy (Shatterskull Smashing, Rabblemaster) with the Eldrazi shell of Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher is really clever, but also utilizing a Punishing Fire removal suite is super cool. Also there's two Birgi, God of Storytelling which is a really immensely interesting card overall.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we have Overhaul on Yorion 4C Rector Nic Fit.
Instead of just Ugin with the Arena Rector plan, this deck also has Karn, the Great Creator which is a really solid card in decks that make a lot of mana (like Nic Fit does) as those decks can leverage putting Karn into play and then utilizing it to either win the game or lock down the game to a win eventually. This list certainly looks like a lot of fun for sure.
Outside of the Top 8, we have continual spice master Pietrone10 with a deck that I thought would maybe appear at some point in the form of U/B Rogues.
This deck is SWEET. Quickling?! Soaring Thought-Thief?! This is a spice level beyond no other and I love it. Really cool deck.
Legacy Challenge 2/28
Our Second Challenge event and the last one of February was the mid afternoon Sunday event, which had 111 players in it! Let's take a look at the breakdown!
Again we see a lot of diversity in the top decks all sharing a little bit of the pie, between ANT/Delver, D&T, and even Painter having a healthy metagame share.Even the win rates are looking pretty snazzy in this event. We're going to wait a few more weeks before doing another metagame update (probably mid-March or so) but so far things are looking honestly great.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Bant Control | 1st | jacetmsst |
| Hogaak | 2nd | LuisMJ |
| Grixis Control | 3rd | Ihavethefire |
| Sneak and Show | 4th | JPA93 |
| BUG Delver | 5th | oinkmage |
| Elves | 6th | Chefen |
| 4C Control | 7th | Ark4n |
| Death's Shadow | 8th | MM_17 |
This is honestly a really solid Top 8. There's a lot of interesting things going on here, and nothing seems overtly crazy. I am loving it!
At the end of the event, it was Bant Control that won the day!
This is essentially a Miracles-like list utilizing Bant colors primarily for cards like Uro (obviously) and Ice-Fang Coatl (although only two copies of Coatl). It's wild to see cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor again as premier threats of the format, but it is certainly fun and interesting to play around.
The Second Place finalist was Hogaak.
Tried and true, I think the biggest thing here is the presence of four Cabal Therapy in the main, but for the most part this is a pretty stock Hogaak list in BUG colors.
Also in the Top 4 we had Grixis Control with not only Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, but also Valki, God of Lies.
Valki is a much fairer card here, given that to cast the back half you do have to pay the full seven mana, but it seems interesting to try out. Kroxa is another card I'm thoroughly interested in, because it feels like it is good here. This is a really neat list, so I'm pretty curious how well it played out.
Further down the Top 8 we had Ark4n on a BUG/W 4C Control variant.
Triomes! Field of the Dead! The greed in the manabase here is super real, and I love it. Even a singleton Life from the Loam to interact with the Triomes, as well as a singleton Intuition (for nabbing Uro of course)!
Outside of the Top 8 we had a great 12th place showing by Death and Taxes.
I like how this list looks honestly. Very clean and interesting. Charming Prince is a cool card and definitely strong. Three versus four copies of Flickerwisp is an interesting decision, but I don't hate it. Really interesting stuff going on here.
Further down the Top 32 we had a 4-3 showing by Painter.
This deck reminds me a lot of a Two-Card Monte style deck as it also includes the combination of Hullbreacher + Day's Undoing, as well as Karn + Lattice. Seems like a really smart way to build this deck honestly. This is very powerful stuff.
Around the Web
- Secret Lair: Doug
- Callum and Julian go all over Esper Mentor in Legacy this past episode of Everyday Eternal. Check it out here.
- The guys at Eternal Glory are F.I.R.E. Fighters this week! Check out the episode here.
- STIFLENOUGHT.
- 90sMTG tests out some Strixhaven commands on stream! Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
The Worldgorger Dragon combo decks definitely lost a fair amount in losing cards like Oko and Astrolabe because they were a shell based on that, but it seems you can't keep a good Dragon down!
Yorion Loam/Lands? This pile is something. Notable appearances by Golos, Keranos, God of Storms, Esika, God of the Tree, and even Cosima, God of the Voyage.
Cosmic Intervention LANDS. This is a card I've been meaning to talk about because it's just wild as heck. The way this card works is so incredibly cool with cards like Wasteland or Uro. You essentially get three Wasteland activations off of it, by cracking Wasteland the turn you play Intervention, it coming back at end step and then cracking it again immediately (which will then cause Intervention to exile it again because it is still "this turn") and then getting it again on your opponent's end step. Super cool card indeed.
Umori's Robots!
What I'm Playing This Week
I'm still jamming Karn Echo for a while. This deck is a lot of fun and I am going to be putting together a video on it as well.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!
As always you can reach me at Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the /r/MTGLegacy Discord Server and subreddit.
Until next time!
